As a gal who grew up “North of 9” I always love heading back up there to document in the small towns I once explored when I was younger. As someone who often went to Orangeville + Hockley Valley for many friend hang outs or school trips, the area quickly became a favorite of mine. Now, the area is booming and much larger then it was but still holds on to such beautiful hidden gems like Hockley Valley Resort.

Emily + Josh live in the area and when it came to choosing a location, Hockley checked all the boxes. A girl I grew up with, Michelle, passed my name along to Emily for photography and I am so so happy she did.

Their day was filled with laughter, rain, love, the most beautiful dress and one of the best dance floors I have ever seen.

I asked Emily a few questions about their day, their love and advice for future brides. Have a read and take a look at their incredible day below!

- Megan Michelle xo

Can you tell us a little about your love story, then and now?

Josh and I met at a highschool grade 9 dance (14yrs old). We started dating in second year university (20 yrs old) and have been together ever since! We got engaged (25yrs old) and are now married (27 yrs old) so we've known each other for 13 years and have been together for 7.5 years!!! We own a house and 2 dogs together and our favourite things to do are going to the cottage, going to hikes with the dogs and spending time with our family and friends. Since we've known each other for so long our friends are almost all the same which makes get togethers a blast ... and a really big party.

What sort of personal elements did you include in your wedding?

I like to think that i added personal touches to almost everything in the wedding! my favourites are: Garter Toss ("Iced Groom" when we went under dress to get garter), Our wedding favours (we made homemade wine with customer labels and boxes to give away), Polaroid Guest Book & Keep sake frames (had custom frames make to hold the Polaroids that guests could keep)

When it came to planning your wedding, what were the 3 most important things to you

Alcohol, photographer and food

You guys did a proper dance routine for your 1st dance, how did this come about?

One request that I had from Josh for our wedding was that I wanted our dance to be amazing and not just public school dance

Do you have any advice for anyone planning their wedding right now?

To keep your sanity and to make sure that you get everything you want without tears!! First: by booking all things that have a date restriction: venue, flowers, photographer, officiant, etc. (the worst thing you can do is fall in love with something and than they are booked and you cant have it :( ). Second: move to all things that take a while to order or have lots of people involved (bridesmaids dresses or suits) and finally: do all the fun little things that can be done as small tasks throughout :) . I would also say so definitely use helpful wedding apps!!! i used wedding wire - they are so great for keeping you on track and you can customize it to include additional tasks that you need to remember to do.